Can not get used to long time actors switching soaps.

[BKuzak]

I'm sure i'm not the only one but i think it's very hard for soap watchers to see one person in a role for maybe 10 or more years and then the person goes to another soap and plays a different character.

I bring this up because i saw a photo of Hillary B Smith at a Bold and Beutiful cast party and for a second i was like "What is she doing there!" She's been Nora for me for over a decade, it's just not simple to just make the switch. She'll always be Nora to me. I know she was on As The World Turns for a time in the late 80's but to me she'll always be Nora.

Take Days Wally Kurth. I know he started as Days Justin but i wasn't watching soaps way back then. I started watching GH in 1992 and he was Ned. I liked him as Ned and he stayed on throughout the rest of the 1990's and into the 2000's. Now he's on Days as Justin and i still can't get used to it. I still call him Ned.

Don't get me wrong, I can adjust to recasts of characters after a year or two. I've lived through like six Kevin Buchanan's and four Carly Roberts. and i've adjusted to that. It's just hard when someone plays this one character for over 10 years day after day and then all of a sudden they switch soaps and you have to accept them as this other character.

[John]

The 70's-90's woulda fustrated you like crazy

PeopelLike Judi evens went from GL To Days To AW and Susan Pratt From GH To GL To AMC. lot of soap hopping. Its was very common then

[juppiter]

It is very difficult for an actor who is so identified in one role to be able to pull off being identified with another.

The only recent example I can think of is Cady McClain going from AMC's Dixie to ATWT's Rosanna, and that was 10 years ago.

[DRW50]

Soaps generally failr at creating any new characters now, no matter who plays the role. The same goes for recasts.

[darraholic]

Genie Francis was another. GH/DAYS/Loving/AMC/Y&R

[DRW50]

She's just not a very good actress.

[JackPeyton]

A+.

[teplin]

I've never had a problem with actors switching soaps. I enjoyed Wally Kurth, Genie Francis and Judi Evans in all their roles. Well, I wasn't terribly fond of Judi as Bonnie on DOOL ... which brings met to something I really can't get used to -- actors switching roles within the same soap. Josh Taylor will always be Chris Kositcheck to me.

[John]

Yeah and it was weird that Tamara Braun played Two roles on Days. I liked both of Sarah Brown's stints on GH but I was watching GH from Dec 1991 on YT and there was Damian Smith (Leigh McCloskey) but he wasnt Damian, he was some doctor when Amy Vining had Brain Surgery. First I was like Damian was once a doc & second, GH gave Amy a story. I was WTF

[Darn]

The problem mostly is grabbing a popular soap star and sticking them into a role that isn't well thought out or interesting or doesn't fit on the canvas. They want a name and a fanbase more than they want to tell a good story.

[Cyberologist]

Really? For awhile at the beginning but later down the road I get use to it just as when they write characters out of charactes...after awhile I get use to the change.

[~bl~]

With certain actors when they hop, I see myself enjoying their acting moreso than being invested in the character they may be playing at the time. A lot of these performers I use their real names while watching instead of their characters. Like I really enjoyed Mary Beth Evans on Days today instead of thinking that was an awesome Kayla scene...

[BKuzak]

I'm talking about playing someone for 10 or more years and then going to another soap. like when Kim Zimmer went to One Life. I know she had played the character years eariler but to me she was Reva. and Echo kind of acted like Reva in a way.

I actually like Laura Wright who plays Carly now. I knew of her on Guiding Light but I didn't watch regularly enough (because i was watching GH) to feel close to her. Although i have to admit her as Cassie marrying Prince Richard was pretty cool. She's always made a beutiful bride, wheither it was with Richard on Guding Light for the royal wedding or the big wedding she had to Jax on GH. She's a lucky actress to have made the transition easily. although i'm sure there are die-hard Guding Light fans that check out GH and say, "Oh that's Cassie. she'll always be Cassie."

The good thing about Erika Slezak is that she's played seven different personalities other than Viki and i've seen her as Erika too and Ms. Ginny and recently she was a swedish maid in that Faternity Row episode so if she went to another soap, it would be like she had another alter. but if she had played just Viki all these years, it would be weird seeing her on another soap playing someone else.

BTW to me Mary Beth Evans will always be Katherine Bell from GH. I know she's a good girl on Days but i'm always thinking "I can see devious Katherine in your eyes." she was on GH off and on for six years and i didn't watch soaps that long before she started so to me she'll always be Katherine Bell.

[All My Shadows]

I tend to associate a person with the role I first see them in, so when they move on to another show or even return to a more popular role, I still see them as the character I saw them as on the show I first saw them on. Example would be Rick Hearst, who was only on GH for a couple of years, but I'll associate him with that show before GL or B&B.

Marcy Walker is always going to be Liza to me. Even if some channel somewhere picks up Santa Barbara reruns and airs them from start to finish, every time I watch, I'll be thinking, "Look-a Liza!"

[~bl~]

Some actors do have signature roles and I will always think of them in that part first. To me Kim Zimmer on OLTL was Kim Zimmer, not Reva, not Echo. That said on occasion I would suffer from cognitive dissonance when Kim would be in a scene with Jerry verDorn as Clint because that's Reva and Ross. I admit the scenes where Echo said you aren't the man I knew all those years ago to Clint, my reaction was of course not, because you knew him as Ross and neither of you was interested in the other in a sexual way.